Funny, right? How do trainee and qualified therapists experience laughter in their practice with clients?

Abstract

Gupta et al. (2018, p. 464) define laughter as "any highly stereotyped utterance characterised by multiple forced, acoustically symmetric, similar vowel-like notes separated by a breathy expiration in a decrescendo pattern." Extensive empirical research has been conducted over recent decades to investigate both the physiological and psychological benefits of laughter, and this has been reviewed by numerous authors, including Mora-Ripoll (2010) and Savage et al. (2017).The consensus from these reviews is that laughter can be highly beneficial to both physical and mental functioning. Tremayne and Sharma's (2019) review of the literature further highlighted the beneficial impact of laughter in supporting medical patients in various settings, as well as supporting the nurses who work with them.It may not be too big a leap to therefore suggest that laughter may not only be beneficial to counselling clients, but also their therapists.Humour in therapy was originally examined from a psychodynamic perspective, primarily by Freud himself. He emphasised the unconscious drives behind humour, suggesting that it can be an unconscious attempt to present different meanings, or a repression of internal conflicts where humour then becomes a defence mechanism (Freud 1905, cited in Strachey, 1983). In the same work, "Jokes and their relation to the unconscious", Freud (1905, cited in Strachey, 1983) also suggested that a client making jokes in therapy is trying

Humor in professional coaching: a literature review and research agenda

“…We identified eight studies in which humor was used as a coping mechanism to alleviate stress for the client. Practitioners strategically employed humor to create an atmosphere of comfort and lightheartedness ( Morrison and Smith, 2013 ; Scott et al, 2015 ; Dionigi and Canestrari, 2018 ; Panichelli et al, 2018 ; Hussong and Micucci, 2020 ; Graßmann et al, 2021 ; Briggs and Owen, 2022 ; Kneisel et al, 2022 ). Clients often turned to humor to deflate the gravity of their issue and by that reduce stress.…”

“…Eight studies (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, and 13) specified that there is a link between humor use in the session and the WA, also mentioned as a bond or therapeutic relation ( Brooks et al, 2023 ). Humor is seen as a unique alliance builder between practitioner and client ( Morrison and Smith, 2013 ; Gibson and Tantam, 2018 ; Hussong and Micucci, 2020 ; Love et al, 2020 ; Graßmann et al, 2021 ; Briggs and Owen, 2022 ; Kneisel et al, 2022 ; Brooks et al, 2023 ). Additionally, practitioners employ humor strategically, particularly when working with challenging clients, to enhance this bond.…”

“…In the study, six practitioners used humor to give an alternative way to proceed if the previous interaction was a difficult one. This is in line with conclusion of Morrison and Smith (2013 , p. 332): “to use humor as a means to facilitate the arduous aspects of therapy.” In study 13, all six therapists mentioned that humor made it possible to meet each other on a deeply connected level, with one therapist stating, “Having that laugh together just feels like you are meeting at that point in that relational depth because there is something so palpably shared” ( Briggs and Owen, 2022 , p. 6). The introduction of humor was associated with more creativity and a variety of responses as mentioned by Kneisel et al (2022) .…”

“…Clients can use humor as a catharsis enabler. One example illustrates a client’s laughter escalated to tears, an occurrence that led the practitioner to remark: “previously unacknowledged wounds came to surface” ( Briggs and Owen, 2022 , p. 6).…”

“… Kneisel et al (2022) presented an additional cognitive benefit; after humor use, the client’s emotional state and evaluation of a situation changed. For instance, the study of Briggs and Owen (2022) showcased a client first reluctant to do the exercise “scream together.” However, after the practitioner used humor, the client displayed a greater willingness to openly discuss the feelings of being controlled, reflecting a newfound insight. Such findings resonate with study, study of Hussong and Micucci (2020) where seven out of 10 practitioners reported that humor, with the right timing, could lead to an exploration of clients’ self-consciousness or unease about certain topics.…”